Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Where have the deer gone ?

When I say no limit on any of it I mean no limit on any of it……We’re allowing any and everything but night hunting to occur right now…….With the price of leases going up…..how many extra hunters from Florida and Louisiana do you think have squeezed into some of these counties……There are no bounds on anything……As many as we can pile in here hunting as many squares as we can put them on with a bait pile shooting as many as they want to with no enforcement…….Folks know exactly what they’re doing and why

Louisiana and Florida hunters hurting the population now? We done went from all the small landowners to OOS hunters. Sounding like you want to be the only that should be able to hunt in Alabama. I thought my hamster wheel spins too much, I think I found someone that has me beat. 😂

I actually believe the out of state guys are some of the most law abiding hunters in Alabama. Just my experience. If regs were changed, they would follow them

CNC, you continually throw up the FL and LA hunters and OOS hunters as if they are the problem. IMO, we as a group of Alabama residents, are the real problem. Based on my experience of owning smaller properties, leasing big acreage and running big managed clubs all over the SW and south central Blackbelt for the past 30 yrs or so, I've found the out of state hunters to be are far more selective and overall herd management minded and oriented, than your typical Alabama resident. The fact is, that most of Alabama is chock full of trespassers, poachers, thieves, game law violators, game hogs and just downright slob hunters. Both white and black, in the areas I'm in. You could fill a semi trailer full to the top with empty corn bags collected off the side of the road in any county in the state. I've hunted all over the southeast and no other state can hold a candle to the hunters in Alabama when it comes to the me, me, me, I'll shoot whatever I want, when I want, I dont care what the rules say, if I dont kill it, someone else will, and the overall general blood lust to simply see dead deer on the tailgate, every time they go into the woods or drive down a rural highway at night. There are plenty that take it as a personal challenge to kill every deer they see. It's just a fact. I'll take OOS hunters as neighbors beside me, all day, everyday, over a group of locals putting together a 20 man club on 1000 acres with $500-1000 dues and the typical shoot everything that walks members that are typical for most of those type clubs and attitude. Most of the guys on this site, when it comes to concern over wildlife, regulations and concerns over sustainability, are the exception to the norm for a large number of AL resident hunters.

If youre concerned about a declining deer herd, age structure, overharvest, etc. Then out of state hunters are exactly who you should be wanting to fill the state up with, to reverse the current harvest trends. Like I said, personally, I'd much rather have them surrounding me and my managed property than big groups of AL residents. Also, rest assured had Chuckie stayed in charge, I'm almost certain that the night hunting permit for deer, that you mentioned above, would have been the next new thing to be offered as a new "privilege" license. Alabama residents would have raced to buy those up, at any price.

Abolt, being relatively new to the state, I couldn’t get my head around the current awful game regs and why the sportsmen wouldn’t demand change. Reading your post I realized that the state isn’t going to fight a culture battle they have no chance of winning. It really is pointless to stay so frustrated.

I was sitting in the stand this Am with zero cell service thinking about all this.
Matt has said in the past (without putting words in his mouth) that corn has allowed small acreage (house lots, etc) to draw in and kill decent deer now, whereas in the past you might kill a random deer or two (right or wrong, that’s when it started). I hunt in town and I can say this is 100% the case. It’s a sore spot with me because a LOT of these small acreage start hunting early, shoot deer at night and certainly don’t worry about getting caught. I had a guy shoot one in March, really good deer that came back to corn after a long hard season. Shot in a backyard. They have no skin in the game. It’s a something for nothing mentality.
Corn may or may not ever be outlawed again, but I see the negative side of it.
I’m for tags and stiffer fines (now) and eventually getting rid of baiting, in that order.


FYI to the original topic, I saw 6 does this AM all eating acorns.
Good luck to everybody this holiday week!
I’m out on this topic.

Just allow me one more thing. Let’s end shooting starving 3 yr olds coming to corn in February for the northern two thirds of the state (at least by the law abiding hunters)

Oh yeah, Feb extension is STUPID.
I think majority would agree on that for the north half. Let the south half boys have it though.
Seems like an easy fix on that one.

they aint gonna change that when all those high fence operations need to sell some more pet deer.

but I agree its stupid for the northern half of the state

Its sad really..........completely hi-jacked by special interest

I'm an exception on the northern half. I personally like the Feb. extension, because our bucks are still chasing where I'm at. I've taken 3 good bucks in the last 5 years on the last week of the season.

The last two seasons I never went hunting in Alabama until February in Madison County.

And our place on South Monroe County is done by the beginning of February. I can count on one hand the bucks we’ve killed during or after the first couple days of February. Our place gets hopping Jan. 18-25. With a few stragglers to the end of the month. Some friends in Clark Co. is just getting going when ours is finished. Losing the 10days in February wouldn’t bother me a bit.

I didnt say that everyone gets what they want, I said they get to manage the deer herd on their place as they wish with their objectives. Whether they achieve their goals is another story.


The State is not nor should they be in the business of either incentivizing not managing for "top end individuals"

Whew a lot on this thread. Glad the state lets us manage the way we choose. Thanks Gobbler.

Chris, if the state decided to sell a privilege license to bait turkeys under the premise of “manage them how each landowner sees fit”, I’m pretty sure you’d get quite passionate about bad policy.

It was bad policy when they did it for deer!

Whew. Steppin on toes now brotha 😂

Amen brother

Nah, you can respect someone and disagree with them at the same time